Condensation on Windows Yesterday 12/12/2007 (houses, construction, garage)

[austin-steve]

Did anyone else experience major window condensation yesterday with the cold rain? All of our metal windows we dripping water onto the window sills worse than I've ever seen. Our iron front door had water running down it and pooling in the entry. Today everything is back to normal, but we soaked several towels going around drying all the windows.

Steve

[south side chap]

Hi Steve,

Yep. Exactly the same story here over the last couple of days. If I were a scientist I would probably be able to explain it properly, but I guess that its down to the cold (combined with rain) outside air meeting the heat radiating from the house. Crikey, it was just like being back in London - I want my money back! There the problem is mainly alleviated by double glazing, but where single glazing is installed its very much prevalent.

Back to normal today though - what a gorgeous morning.

Ttfn

Simon.

[Trainwreck20]

The cold front, followed by warm/moist air, probably pulled in a lot of humidity but not enought heat to cause you to turn on the AC, so the humidity was just hanging around. The subsequent cool front caused it to condense out again. It might also be somehow related to the metal windows expanding and contracting to let moisture in around them, dunno.... Anyway, we did not get any condensation, so it might also be very specific to the window/house contruction, or whether you turned your ac on. We turned ours on for a few hours to dry the house out the other day, so I am sure a lot of moisture was removed.

Anyway, heating/cooling cycles cause structures to 'breath' quite a bit, so I suspect many houses were almosting panting the last few days.... .

[southdown]

Do you have guttering? If not, the cold water dropping straight off the roof and getting on the outside of the glass will cool it dramatically, making the warm moist air inside condense and drip everywhere.

Condensation results from warm moist ambient indoor air hitting a cold surface. If you keep the inside surface warmer (double glazing, guttering etc) and the inside moisture levels down (open windows when you can, put the extractor fan on in kitchen, shower rooms etc) the problem should improve

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

Did anyone else experience major window condensation yesterday with the cold rain? All of our metal windows we dripping water onto the window sills worse than I've ever seen. Our iron front door had water running down it and pooling in the entry. Today everything is back to normal, but we soaked several towels going around drying all the windows.

Steve

Exact same thing happened to me.
I'm glad to hear it wasn't just my house. This is my first winter in it, and I was worried that I'd have to keep sponges in my sills all season!

[LongTimeAustinite]

Steve,

This happens at our house when it's very cold outside and the heater is on. The metal around the glass is not insulated so it condenses water on the surface much like a cold glass of water does on a hot day.

The heater does not extract moisture from the air like the A/C does. In a newer house the construction is usually very air tight and the moisture can not escape. Try opening your fire place flue next time.

Fortunately it doesn't get cold here for long periods of time.


LTA

[austifornian]

It's not so noticeable at these temperatures, but the humidity has been in the mid-eighties to mid-nineties over the last couple of days so there is a lot of water vapor. I was in a parking garage yesterday where the temperature of the cement must have been below the dew point - the water vapor in the air was condensing so fast on the concrete it was literally raining inside the garage.

[Phisch]

Our windows had a ton of condensation, too and have had that issue for a while. I assumed that it's because they're metal. They're double-paned though, so I was kind of surprised to find it happening.

[HappyTexan]

My windows too had alot of condensation. I think it was due to the drastic drop in temps plus the humidity.

[xsloane]

It was funny, because I read the night before that there were going to be patches with very, very thick fog around here, so I looked out the window and I thought "they were right! look at all that fog!" so I get my mind ready for a "foggy" winter early morning exercise session and I opened the door... "what? where did all the fog go?" looked at the window and sure enough... well, all the "fog" was there, right on it.